Creation Science Rebuttals

Answers in Genesis Daily
Feature

Decontaminating
the Church (Decontaminating our Children)

29 January 2005

Popular creation science speaker
Ken
Ham and Answers in Genesis (AiG) recently published an article on their website
with the title
Decontaminating our Children. The basis of the article is
that our children are exposed to evolution, and they must be protected from
this false teaching, through the use of the new DVD resource that the
article is meant to advertise.

Evolution is Not the Enemy

Whether or not evolution is true makes no difference to the creation account
found in Genesis. You can be an old earth evolutionist, and believe in
Genesis literally, accept the Bible as inerrant, and have salvation in Jesus
Christ. It is a shame that young earth creation science ministries do not recognize this. The
motto at the top of the Answers in Genesis website is “Upholding the
authority of the Bible from the very first verse.” What they don’t realize
is that Old Earth Ministries (and Reasons to Believe) does the same thing, but we believe in an old
earth. Young earth creationists do not have a corner on the market when it
comes to supporting Biblical authority…although they would have you believe
that.
Let’s look at some of the misconceptions
presented in this article. First, Answers in Genesis clearly has a burden to
reach children with the truth of God’s word, as they claim. However, what
they are doing is laying a foundation that will cause more people to
abandon the Christian faith. This claim may astound you, but let’s look at
it more closely.
Ken Ham states in the article, “...that
for young people who go to church, somewhere between 70–90% abandon the
church after they graduate from high school.” Of course, he attributes this
to the negative affects of the teaching of evolution. However, the “real”
cause is not the teaching of evolution…it is the blind acceptance that our
young people are told they must have in the young earth creation science model.
From a young age, we teach our children
that the earth is young. When they study these subjects for themselves in
high school or college, they see that evolution, astronomy, and geology
teaches that the earth is old. They are left with a decision to make…blindly
follow the teachings of the Bible, and discard modern science…or abandon the
Bible and accept science.
When these problems are presented to young
earth creationism proponents, and they don’t have answers, the standard answer is that
the Bible is the final authority. If you don’t accept it, then you don’t
accept a young earth. No wonder our youth are leaving the church…they are
being driven away by the contradictions they see.
It does not have to be this way! Instead of
driving people away from the church, we can keep them there by teaching them
correctly in the first place. You can accept the fact that the earth is old,
AND be a Christian. You can believe in an inerrant Bible, and uphold it’s
authority, AND believe in an old earth! Old earth Christians can believe in
evolution (theistic evolution), or they can
reject evolution (progressive creationists).

The Bible Supports an Old Earth

The Bible says in Job 12:8, “Speak to the
earth, and it shall teach thee.” And in Romans 1:20, “For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;
so that they are without excuse.” God says “Look at creation…you will see
me.”

When scientists look at our world and universe, it clearly says that it
is billions of years old. These verses work, and they testify that the world
is billions of years old. It is regrettable that young earth creationists
refuse to honestly examine God’s creation. They have made a mockery of these
two verses. If our young people, when they get to college, decide that the
earth really is old, and they see the message proposed by the church that
the earth is young, it is no wonder that they are leaving the church! We
have pre-programmed them to leave!
Ken Ham says “The response of these
precious children (to whether or not they have heard about evolution or
“billions of years”) demonstrates the incredibly effective job the “world”
has done in brainwashing generations of young people with false,
faith-shattering ideas that have caused so many to reject the Bible (and the
gospel message!) as true.” Yes, the world is teaching these things, but they
are doing so after following the advice (without realizing it) of Job 12:8
and Romans 1:20. The scientific truth of billions of years is not
“faith-shattering”…the truth is that parents who exclusively teach a young
earth are unintentionally setting up their children to fall away from the
faith.

Who Needs Decontamination?

We don’t need to “decontaminate” our
children from evolutionary theory. If Job 12:8 and Romans 1:20 are true,
they will see God in a creation of billions of years. We need to
“decontaminate” the church of the idea that young earth creation science is the only
option. AiG claims to “wholeheartedly believe God’s Word beginning in
Genesis.” So do I! Yet I believe in an old earth…one that completely agrees
with God’s word, including Job12:8 and Romans 1:20.
Finally, Ken Ham mentions the often used
argument of “Were you there?” Young earth creationists use this against old
earth believers and non-Christians, saying that we could not possibly know
that the earth is old because we were not there when it was created. To Ken
Ham I ask, “Were you there?” Young earth creationists were not there either! Such an argument has absolutely no value for either young earth or old earth
creationism. They should add this to their list of arguments that young
earth creationists should not use.

Conclusion

Decontamination needs to start with the
church, not our youth. We must cleanse the idea of “accept a young earth or
else" attitude from our churches. If you want to believe in a young earth,
that’s fine. However, you can believe in an old earth (with or without
evolution) and be a Bible-believing, fundamentalist Christian! Teaching this
would eliminate the contradiction that our young people see when they are
confronted with the idea of billions of years.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision
for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to
what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the
inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while
still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we
have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in
this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If
you are a young earth creationism believer,
click here.